SiaNAl can be efficiently incorporated in glycoproteins of human mesenchymal stromal cells by metabolic glycoengineering

Metabolic glycoengineering involves the stimulation of cells with functionalized monosaccharides. Glucosamine, galactosamine, and mannosamine derivatives are commercially available, but their application may lead to undirected (i.e., chemical) incorporation into proteins. However, sialic acids are attached to the ends of complex sugar chains of glycoproteins, which might be beneficial for cell surface modification via click chemistry. Thus, we studied the incorporation of chemically synthesized unnatural alkyne modified sialic acid (SiaNAl) into glycoproteins of human telomeraseimmortalized mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSC-TERT) and we show that SiaNAl can be efficiently incorporated in glycoproteins involved in signal transduction and cell junction.

Automated summary

Metabolic glycoengineering involves stimulating cells with functionalized monosaccharides, but commercially available derivatives may lead to random incorporation into proteins. However, chemically synthesized sialic acids can be efficiently incorporated into glycoproteins for cell surface modification. In this study, we successfully fused alkyne modified sialic acid into glycoproteins involved in signal transduction and cell junctions in human telomerase-immortalized mesenchymal stromal cells.